The Commission establishes sentencing policies and practices for the federal courts. Each year, the Commission reviews and refines these policies in light of congressional action, decisions from courts of appeals, sentencing-related research, and input from the criminal justice community.

In this section, you can follow the Commission’s work through the amendment cycle as priorities are set, research is performed, testimony is heard, and amendments are adopted.

The U.S. Sentencing Commission is an independent agency in the judicial branch that was created as part of the Sentencing Reform Act of 1984. Commissioners are nominated by the President and confirmed by the Senate. The Attorney General, or the Attorney General’s designee, and the Chair of the U.S. Parole Commission serve as ex officio, nonvoting members of the Commission.

In this section, learn about the Commission’s mission, structure, and ongoing work.

2007 Guideline Application Frequencies

Introduction

The following two comprehensive data tables provide information on guideline application during Fiscal Year 2007. The first table, Use of Guidelines and Specific Offense Characteristics: Fiscal Year 2007, details the use, during this fiscal year, of each guideline, alternative base offense level, and Specific Offense Characteristic (SOC). The second table, Chapter Three Adjustments, Fiscal Year 2007, provides the number and percentage of Chapter Three adjustments for each guideline.

During Fiscal Year 2007, 72,865 cases were received by the Commission, of which, 63,906 (87.7 percent) contained complete guideline information. "Complete guideline information" means that the following sentencing documents were received by the Commission: the Statement of Reasons, the Presentence Report and the Judgment and Conviction Order. These tables include information on all guideline applications for the 63,906 cases with complete guideline information. Consequently, in cases with multiple guideline calculations, each guideline calculation is included separately in the analysis.

These tables include Fiscal Year 2007 cases that were sentenced using the 2006 Guidelines Manual as well as prior versions of the Guidelines Manual. Data for guideline application from multiple versions of the Manual result because within any fiscal year, sentenced cases may include guideline applications using earlier versions of the Guidelines Manual. See USSG §1B1.11 (Use of Guidelines Manual in Effect on Date of Sentencing (Policy Statement)). For example, guideline 2F1.1 (Fraud and Deceit) was consolidated into a different guideline and §2F1.1 was deleted from the Guidelines Manual effective November 1, 2001. However, 487 cases were sentenced under this guideline in FY 2007.